Federal inmate phone calls run through the Bureau of Prisons’ Inmate Telephone System, cost $0.09 per minute for domestic audio under current FCC caps, and can only reach numbers that have been pre-approved on the inmate’s contact list. Every call is recorded, individual calls are capped at 15 minutes, and each inmate gets 300 minutes per calendar month. Getting yourself added as an approved contact takes about five business days once the inmate submits your information.
Getting on the Approved Call List
No call reaches you until your number is on the inmate’s approved list. During intake, the inmate fills out a Telephone Number Request form with the name, address, phone number, and relationship for each proposed contact. The list holds up to 30 numbers, though the Associate Warden can approve more for inmates with large families or other individual circumstances.1eCFR. 28 CFR 540.101 – Procedures
Unit staff screen each proposed contact for security concerns. The inmate has to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, everyone on the list agrees to receive calls. If you aren’t immediate family or already on the visiting list, staff will send you a written notice that your number has been added, and you can ask to be removed at any time. Requests are ordinarily processed within five business days, not counting the submission date.2Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.07 – Telephone Regulations for Inmates
The Associate Warden can reject a number if the contact would threaten institutional security or public safety. Common denials involve numbers belonging to law enforcement officials acting in an official capacity, current BOP employees, or BOP facilities. Numbers for victims, witnesses, or recently separated BOP employees need the Warden’s written approval before they can be added.2Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.07 – Telephone Regulations for Inmates A denial has to be documented in writing to both the inmate and the proposed recipient. If your number is rejected, you can write directly to the Warden within 15 days, and the inmate can challenge the decision through the BOP’s Administrative Remedy Program. The inmate can also resubmit list changes at least once per quarter as circumstances change.1eCFR. 28 CFR 540.101 – Procedures
What Calls Cost
The FCC sets uniform rate caps under the Martha Wright-Reed Act, so distance doesn’t matter — a call across the country costs the same per minute as one across town. As of December 2025, the interim caps for federal prisons are:3eCFR. 47 CFR 64.6030 – Incarcerated Peoples Communications Services Interim Rate Caps
- Domestic audio calls: $0.09 per minute
- Video calls: $0.23 per minute
Facilities can tack on up to $0.02 per minute to cover their own costs of making phone service available, bringing the ceiling to $0.11 per minute for audio and $0.25 for video. These rates went up from the 2024 cap of $0.06 per minute for audio, so if your budgeting is based on older numbers, recalculate.
International audio calls work differently: the provider charges the domestic rate cap plus whatever it actually pays its underlying international carrier to reach the destination country. That markup varies by country and is recalculated quarterly.4Federal Register. Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act – Rates for Interstate Incarcerated Peoples Communication Services
Funding the Account
Calls can be paid two ways. A debit call pulls from the inmate’s commissary account. A collect call bills a prepaid account tied to your phone number. You can add money by credit or debit card through the provider’s website or toll-free line, by money order in the mail, or through services like Western Union or MoneyGram. FCC rules cap the transaction fees: up to $3.00 for an automated online or phone payment, up to $5.95 if a live agent processes it. Third-party service fees are passed through at cost without markup.
The BOP’s financial responsibility rules currently set aside a $75 monthly allowance, or $450 per six-month period, from an inmate’s account for communication expenses before calculating what the inmate owes toward court-ordered obligations like restitution.5Federal Register. Inmate Financial Responsibility Program – Procedures Phone costs don’t eat into money earmarked for those obligations, and vice versa.
Time Limits per Call and per Month
Each inmate gets 300 minutes of phone time per calendar month, covering any mix of debit and collect calls.6Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.08 – Inmate Telephone Regulations Individual calls are ordinarily capped at 15 minutes, with a warning tone about a minute before disconnection. After hanging up, the inmate may have to wait before placing another call. The Warden at each facility sets the exact call length and the wait interval based on local conditions like phone availability and how many people share the phones.
An inmate who runs out of minutes can ask for more for good cause, but approval is up to the facility.6Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.08 – Inmate Telephone Regulations
Free Minutes Through First Step Act Programming
Starting January 1, 2025, inmates actively participating in First Step Act Evidence-Based Recidivism Reduction programs get 300 free phone minutes per month. The benefit applies whether or not the inmate is eligible for earned time credits, but it’s capped at 30 minutes per day. Inmates not enrolled in qualifying programs still get their 300-minute allotment and pay the standard per-minute rate from their commissary account.7Federal Bureau of Prisons. FBOP Updates to Phone Call Policies and Time Credit System
Recording and Monitoring
Every call placed through the ITS is recorded. A notice posted near each phone warns inmates in English and Spanish that all calls are subject to monitoring, and picking up the phone counts as consent. An automated message plays at the start of each call so you know on your end that the conversation is being recorded.6Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.08 – Inmate Telephone Regulations The recordings can be shared with law enforcement, including prosecutors. Assume anything said on a regular call could be reviewed later.
Attorney Calls Are the Only Exception
Properly arranged calls to defense counsel are not monitored.8eCFR. Subpart I – Telephone Regulations for Inmates In pretrial units, legal phones are pre-programmed with verified defense numbers, particularly Federal Defender offices. For a private attorney, the inmate or the attorney submits a written request to the Unit Team asking for an unmonitored call. Approval depends on the case circumstances and staff availability, and the BOP grants frequent or lengthy unmonitored calls only when mail, visits, and regular calls aren’t enough, such as an approaching court deadline or a long-distance lawyer.9Federal Bureau of Prisons. Pretrial Detention Legal Access Handbook
An ordinary call to a lawyer’s number placed from a regular ITS phone is still recorded. Privilege protection only attaches to calls specifically arranged through the legal call process.
What Inmates Cannot Do on the Phone
Several practices are banned outright because they would let inmates bypass monitoring or reach people who aren’t on the approved list:
- Call forwarding, whether automatic or manual, to route a call to a third party.
- Three-way calling or electronically transferring a call to bring another person on the line.
- Calls to 1-800, 1-888, 1-877, 1-866, 1-900, 1-976, and credit card access numbers, which are blocked.
- Sharing a personal phone access code with another inmate, or possessing someone else’s code.
The ITS has to verify who is calling whom on every single call, and anything that breaks that chain gets treated as a serious violation.6Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.08 – Inmate Telephone Regulations
Phone violations fall into three severity tiers under the BOP discipline code, based on what the inmate was trying to do. Using the phone for illegal activity sits at the greatest severity tier. Three-way calling and call forwarding, which defeat monitoring, are high severity. Exceeding time limits or lesser misuse falls at moderate severity. At every tier, loss of phone privileges is an available sanction, along with disciplinary segregation and forfeiture of good conduct time at the higher tiers. Hearing officers have discretion on suspension length.10eCFR. Subpart A – Inmate Discipline Program
When Phone Access Gets Cut Back
Regular access disappears in two situations. An inmate placed in the Special Housing Unit, whether for discipline or administrative segregation, is allowed one social phone call per month unless a specific sanction has removed phone privileges entirely. The first call opportunity comes within 30 days of placement, and subsequent calls every 30 days after that. Legal calls run on a separate track.11Federal Bureau of Prisons. Special Housing Units
During facility-wide emergencies or lockdowns, the BOP can further modify or suspend phone access. Federal regulations authorize additional restrictions whenever needed for correctional management. During the COVID-19 emergency period the BOP temporarily provided free phone and video calls to offset suspended visitation, but that authority was tied specifically to the CARES Act declaration and isn’t a standing benefit.8eCFR. Subpart I – Telephone Regulations for Inmates
Reporting Dropped Calls and Technical Problems
Dropped calls and outages eat into limited minutes and account balances. Report technical issues through the BOP’s online contact form at bop.gov by selecting “Technical issue” from the subject menu. Questions about a specific facility’s phone operations should go straight to that facility. The BOP’s Central Office can be reached at (202) 307-3198 for general concerns. For billing disputes or credits tied to dropped calls, contacting the phone provider directly is usually faster; the current contractor is ICSolutions at 1-888-506-8407. The BOP does not publish a formal reimbursement process for dropped calls.